The construction of naval ships calls for the use of stuffing tubes where electrical cables are extended through bulkheads and decks. These stuffing tubes include tubular bodies fitted through openings in the bulkheads and decks and welded into place. An asbestos composition seal is within the stuffing tube around the cable, and various machined parts are used to compress the seal so as to substantially prevent air flow from one side of the bulkhead or deck to the other. Inasmuch as the electrical cables come in many different diameters, a comparable number of sizes of tubular bodies has been necessary for conventional stuffing tubes. For example, twenty-three sizes of tube bodies have been required, with similar numbers of the internal parts making up the stuffing tube assembly. The large number of parts has added to the cost of the inventory to be maintained and made stuffing tube installations complex. In addition, when cable routing assignments are changed during ship construction, as occurs from time to time, changing the size of cable at tube bodies previously welded into place, it has been necessary to cut the tube bodies out of the deck and bulkheads and replace them with those of different sizes. This obviously is a very expensive and time-consuming operation.
Another problem arises in ship overhaul and refurbishing. This causes frequent change in the size of electrical cables, usually a reduction in size due to the different electrical requirements of modern electronic equipment. This has meant that the old tubular bodies have had to be cut out of the bulkheads and decks and replaced with new and different sized tubular bodies. Again, the cost has been very high and the time required has been excessive. Many prior stuffing tube installations also have a tendency to leak, requiring a great deal of time and expense in reworking to make them substantially airtight in accordance with specifications.